DrDoom Presents: My Pitch For CAPTAIN AMERICA 3

Recently, an article was released on this site asking what fans were looking for in the third Captain America film, due for release in 2016. Here, DrDoom will tell you in what direction he feels Steve Rogers' next adventure should go!

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By DrDoom - 7/12/2014

"The world has changed . . . . and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes, the best that we can do . . . . is to start over." - Margaret 'Peggy' Carter

When directing duo Joe and Anthony Russo were selected to helm the second installment in the Captain America film franchise, there was much apprehension from fans around the world. Many loved the take that Joe Johnston had provided in Captain America: The First Avenger, and while I was supportive of them from the time they got the job, the filmography of the Russo Bros. left the divided feelings of the fanbase very understandable. Despite being mostly known for comedic work, the team was shilled by Marvel Studios main producer Kevin Feige, who was unwaveringly confident that they could deliver a movie that the fanbase deserved.

Luckily for us, Captain America: The Winter Soldier exceeded expectations in nearly every conceivable way. The personal journey of Steve Rogers, the man out of time, was one full of intrigue, suspense, character development and of course, action, along with a few welcome surprises along the way. It showed a dedication to smart, tight plotting, a balance of seriousness and humour, and an almost shocking amount of change in the status quo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Now that it has become one of Marvel's most successful and acclaimed films yet,the question on everyone's mind is what will come next. So far, we know that the Russo Bros. have been brought back to direct Captain America 3, and that it has a release date of May 6th, 2016. Outside of an interview about one potential storyline being 'psychotic 1950's Cap', we have no idea at this point where the story will go. The previous film ended with Steve and Sam Wilson deciding to try and find Bucky, SHIELD being in shambles, and the knowledge that Hydra is still out there. With those things in mind, I will now outline a story idea that I have for Captain America 3. Of course, what happens in Avengers: Age of Ultron will no doubt have an effect on the story's direction, but given that we don't know what will happen yet in that movie, my story will try and be as open as possible in case of certain story threads being potentially closed off.

Captain America: Dream's End

The film starts out similarly to how the second one did; with an opening action sequence to immediately get the audience invested. Since the fall of SHIELD, Steve Rogers has decided to take matters into his own, shield-throwing hands, by forming an elite squad of heroes that he personally commands. This team is comprised of himself, Sam Wilson, Clint Barton and Sharon Carter.

Sam Wilson has been tagging along with Cap since the second movie, and presumably, Cap and Hawkeye will have gained a stronger bond during the events of Age of Ultron. Despite having a small role in Winter Soldier, Sharon Carter did display a certain amount of loyalty to Cap, especially during her confrontation with Brock Rumlow. These four heroes decide to band together due to the knowledge that Hydra still operates in secret cells around the world, and they've dedicated themselves to crushing all remaining Hydra resistance. For Cap, this serves two purposes: one, for him to make the free world safe from the tyranny of Hydra, and two, for him to try and locate leads that may reveal Bucky's location.

The opening sequence involves the team storming a secret Hydra outpost in a remote location in Eastern Europe. Quickly and efficiently defeating the enemy soldiers, Cap and his team are surprised to find that there is no base commander. They interrogate one of the surviving Hydra soldiers, who reveals nothing except for an ominous warning:

"Your war is futile, Herr Captain. You and your friends are nothing compared to what is coming. Hail immortal Hydra!"

While the rest of the team sees this as nothing more than the ravings of a defeated enemy, Cap knows better and begins to seriously question whether or not what they're doing is bringing them any closer to achieving their goal of stopping Hydra for good. Sharon Carter insists that displaced cells and renegade operatives are all that remains of Hydra according to her CIA contacts, but Cap finds it hard to believe considering that every soldier they've faced still seems to be unquestioningly loyal to the goal of Hydra's new world order.

"I have lived a life . . . . my only regret is that you didn't get to live yours."

During their missions together, Steve and Sharon Carter have also gotten closer. Along with finally learning her familial connection to Peggy, a major theme in the film is Steve learning to finally allow himself to become emotionally vulnerable enough to be happy. Winter Soldier moved at such a breakneck pace that it gave Steve little time to reflect after the first half hour. I want Dream's End to take a bit of a slower approach, with Cap realizing just how unhappy he was due to his lost connections, and coming to terms with the fact that he needs to be willing to make new emotional connections in order to live a fulfilling life outside of his heroic duties. Sharon Carter will play a major role in that, and will build on the flirtation that was shown between the two in the previous film.

Aside from just romance, I also want the movie to have a significant amount of time invested into the relationship between Cap and Hawkeye. Of course, we don't yet know how much time will be spent on this in Age of Ultron, but given that they have a very dynamic and important relationship in the comics, I want this to become important in the films. A key feature of this would be Cap looking at Hawkeye as something of an apprentice; while Sam Wilson takes the role of his partner, Cap would see Hawkeye as someone who needs to be guided, perhaps because he has a more jaded and cynical worldview than Falcon due to his background and eventual disillusionment with SHIELD. The reason that Cap being willing to take Hawkeye on is so important is because this will also be Cap opening himself up to someone who could be seen as a potential replacement for Bucky. Cap's guilt over Bucky's transformation into the Winter Soldier is something that Cap needs to get past, and his relationship with Hawkeye could help with this.

"Hydra created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, Hydra's new world order will arise. We won, Captain." - Arnim Zola

Of course, it eventually turns out that Cap's fear of how legitimate Hydra's defeat was turns out to be justified. Arnim Zola, whose consciousness was transferred into a computer mainframe, turns out to be alive and well, having downloaded his mind to another computer (and hopefully a robotic body) so that he would survive SHIELD's attack on his bunker at Camp Lehigh. Continously staying ahead, it turns out that Zola has been secretly feeding misleading intel to the CIA about Hydra's movements, giving up small cells and throwaway operatives so that Cap's team would feel like they were making progress to buy time for him to enact his true plan.

"You could have the power of the gods! Yet you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight a battle of nations! I have seen the future Captain . . . . there are no flags." - Red Skull

At the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, the Red Skull was seemingly absorbed and transported into space by the power of the Cosmic Cube. It will turn out that the Skull was sent into a pocket dimension created by the Cube's energy, and that Zola has been working on a way to free him based on the work that Erik Selvig and SHIELD did when they had the Cube during The Avengers. Zola's hope is that with the Red Skull back in charge of Hydra, he will be able to inspire his followers around the world to rally behind him as part of their next plan for world domination.

The movie will then introduce our two new main villains: Baron Zemo and Madame Hydra. These two ruthless characters are currently in command of Hydra, and have been operating in secret for decades, as part of a council of Hydra leaders that included Baron von Strucker and Alexander Pierce. Due to the failing of Pierce's Project Insight, Zemo and Madame Hydra have decided that brute force is preferable to subterfuge, and have enacted their new plan: Project Sleeper.

It turns out that during the seventy years that Hydra was operating as a part of SHIELD, Zola and his subordinates had been covertly gathering the resources and manpower to construct an army of massive, walking battle mechs called Sleepers, which would be buried underground, only to be activated in case Hydra's cover was blown in a way that they could not recover from. Zemo and Madame Hydra agree that now is the time, and order the Sleepers be brought online.

My Completely Unoriginal Fancast Pick For Baron Zemo:

My Much More Original Fancast Pick For Madame Hydra:

"Cut off one head, and two more shall take its place." - Hydra Motto

Knowing that the army that was SHIELD no longer stands to oppose them, Baron Zemo and Madame Hydra take the first wave of Sleepers and begin activating them to stage an assault on North America, hoping to forcibly take the continent under Hydra's control. As well, Madame Hydra goes to Brock Rumlow, who had been saved and healed by Hydra, and repurposes him as Crossbones. She knows that Rumlow's idol is the Red Skull (it's revealed that Rumlow is a Neo-Nazi at heart who is fanatically devoted to the Skull) and promises him that he will serve as the Skull's right hand once he is revived.

"There are no prisoners with Hydra; just order. And order only comes from pain. You ready for yours?" - Brock 'Crossbones' Rumlow

Crossbones' assignment is to find the Winter Soldier (who has been on the run since the end of the second film) and bring him back into Hydra's control. Cap and his team follow Crossbones to Bucky, and try to save him, but Crossbones' rejuvenated form makes him a capable match for Cap. During the battle, Crossbones is able to capture Bucky and take him away, while Hydra soldiers keep Cap's team at bay. During this, Bucky, whose mind is in disarray, sees that Cap tries to save him and recognizes him as his friend, saying 'Steve' under his breath as Crossbones puts Bucky into a helicopter and escapes with him.

"Then finish it . . . . because I'm with you to the end of the line." - Steve Rogers

Knowing that there is little time before the Sleepers are fully operational, Cap and his team have no choice but to follow Crossbones back to the Hydra base of operations and start a desperate assault. Zola tells Zemo and Madame Hydra to use the their full force to repel Cap's team, because he needs time to finish his device that will revive the Skull. During the battle, Cap and his team have to fight Zemo, Madame Hydra, Crossbones and hordes of Hydra minions.

This is the point where it becomes clear why the movie is titled Dream's End. Should Cap fail, his dream of a world made free will be no more; if Hydra should fail, their dream of a world under their control will be thwarted. Eventually, the heroes manage to pre-emptively destroy the Sleepers at the base, stopping Hydra's plans, and forcing the remaining villains to retreat. Cap also finds and rescues Bucky, who finally recognizes him.

However, unknown to the heroes, they have only managed to defeat Hydra, not destroy it. Despite Project Sleeper being stopped, Zola had the time he needed to accomplish his objective: the revival of the Red Skull. The surviving villains and Hydra soldiers watch in awe as their one true master steps out of the portal, ready to finally lead Hydra to total victory. In a way, this is the real meaning of Dream's End: the dream of a world safe from the Red Skull is truly no more.

So, what did you think? Is this the sort of film you would like to see for Captain America 3? Let me know in the comments section!

a very well thought out piece, much of which I could see happening. Although the title ties in nicely to the concepts I'm a bit iffy on it and I've never been keen on the sleepers all that much. But other than that this sounds pretty cool

I'd love to see Emily Blunt has Madame Hydra, as long as she gets to kick-ass. After Edge of Tomorrow I NEED to see her in another badass role.

I hope that Black Widow's absence is explained (unless she dies in AoU). It'd feel unnatural to have her completely absent.

One thing I REALLY want to see is Bucky show up throughout the movie helping them out without the team knowing it. As an Agent of Hydra sneaks up on Cap (who's giving some mothasucka a beatdown) They're randomly shot. Things as simple as that would just be awesome to me.

I figure the tone would be somewhere between the two. Because it doesn't involve betrayal and plays its villains more straight, I figure that it won't be as dark, and will harken back more to the 'adventure' style of First Avenger, with Cap and team following Hydra around the globe, but it will also not be as light and soft as the first film.

that sounds about right. i really think this is all quite plausible. The only thing I might question is the inclusion of Hawkeye on the team. Everything else - the globe-trotting, the plot, the returning characters, the new ones (esp Zemo) - all seem to fit. The way you have Hawkeye as a kind of protege, doesn't quite sit right with me. i think they could just do it with Sam instead

I like a number of your ideas like more of a relationship between Cap and Hawkeye which you are right they have a great relationship in the comics. I like the idea of having Crossbones back especially with the ending in WS. Lastly I also love the idea of Christoph Waltz in the movie because I absolutely love him as an actor though I don't like the idea of him as Baron Zemo just because he looks far to old for an enemy who is suppose to fight Cap on near equal footing. I don't know it would just be weird to see him try to fight Chris Evans.

But I'd honestly like to see a TV series about the Winter Soldier. I know Stan would love to do a TV series. The hard one to sell it to would be Scarlett Johansson but I think they could do it. And I'd just set it up that BW found Bucky and of course they know each other and Buck asks her for time to straighten out stuff before he meets Cap again, she agrees. Then he finds himself being targeted by someone who wants to capture/kill him. So they go on the run trying to find out who and why they're targeting him. (I'd also love to play with the idea that well he wasn't a good guy in the past and perhaps someone has a good reason to want to kill him... that kind of moral what's right, what's wrong I'd love to play with.

Good work though.

I like how you brought back Red Skull too. Had a similar idea. I honestly want Red Skull to be the villain for Avengers 3. Perhaps a side villain at least.

But what do you guys think? Would you like a Winter Soldier TV series?

Everything sounded pretty good except for the sleepers; it's too similar to what happened in CA:TWS with the Helicarriers. Also, I would save the return of Red skull for an after-credits scene, and I would want to see him talking to Thanos just before he enters a portal to return to earth and meet Zola in cyborg form. The primary villains should just be Zemo, Madame Hydra, and Crossbones. Avengers 3 could be about Red Skull, Loki, and maybe Mandarin and/or Ultron preparing Earth and the 9 realms for Thanos' arrival/assault.

Good article, good read. The only issue I have about this editorial, and others that have discussed the topic of Captain America 3, is we don't know where Cap will be after Age of Ultron. We don't know where any of the characters are going to be, physically and metaphorically speaking. I am not saying I don't enjoy these articles, or that I don't like the ideas. I enjoy the discussion, that is why i participate in them. I personally cannot even begin to think of how a Cap 3 will turn. Characters is easy but actual plots are tough with limited info. Again good article, enjoyed it very much.

I'd rather Red Skull somehow be brought back at the end of a film like Avengers 2 or something and then be a central focus of Cap 3 as a mysterious background villain that isn't fully revealed until the end.

Having said that...

I do like some of the ideas in this pitch. Seeing Crossbones come full circle is a cool idea and I really like the comic art you chose. I think that'd be a neat costume to use for the film. I'm also game for Baron Zemo to finally show up.

Overall this is a really good pitch. You paint a solid picture of a film which isn't that common in these "pitch" articles. Usually it's just somebody listing small elements they'd like to see used instead of pitching a whole film from start to finish.

Nope, nope, nope. This is a bad idea. For one thing it's too much like the second movie except that the second movie completely changed the MCU, this doesn't. The only thing that this movie does is bring back the Red Skull and that's not nearly enough. The rest is the same. Arnim Zola's secret plan, hydra being in a different state than what the heroes belive (in winter soldier dead and in this dying but in truth they're well and alive in both movies), bucky begins to be saved AGAIN but we don't see it yet. This isn't a sequel, it's more like a remake. It's suprising that you would think this would work considering that the Russos said that Cap2 and Cap3 would be a two part story. This isn't the other part, this is an extension. And the character arc that you suposedly would have isn't there. Winter Soldier should be moderately saved at the end of this movie. You just did the same thing that Cap2 did. Bucky isn't saved yet despite the end of the other movie indicating that he would be a good guy at the end of this even if not a redeemed one. You don't even explore the relationship. You just add it at the end and mention it throughout. And the character arc for Cap is stupid. It makes no sense and isn't in any way relevant. Even the whole thing about him opening up isn't enough for the whole movie. YOu need a bigger arc than that. Also, where's the real world reflection that the Winter Soldier had? How does the story have anything to do with the real world? I've seen your great work and this isn't it.

Thumbs up, but one thing... Cap will end up with Black Widow. The connection to his first love will be too much for him to get close to Carter... Therefore Widow is the logical choice. Sorry if you're a fan of shipping Widow with Hawkeye. That's just not gonna happen. They're colleagues/friends and nothing more. That's like trying to ship Thor and Loki haha.

wow, you made that pitch your bitchalthough I'd consider subtitles like Sentinel of Liberty or All the Kevin Feige's Men before I'd consider Dream's End, to me that sounds like the name of an X-Men storyline-- oh wait that is what it isanway, nice jorb!

Nice! However, the dynamic between Clint And Steve is not so sweet, Clint respects Cap but still does it in a douchey way. Clint would say something like this to Steve "I'm with you Old Man, just don't fall asleep on me, and btw,lay off the Bengay a little please". That's the MAIN dynamic that Whedon failed with Hawkeye in Avengers, was Hawkeye's dick attitude.

As far as the storyline, Red Skull needs to NOT "almost" make it back, he needs to be fully realized and fleshed out more in this movie. He needs to be purely evil and actually accomplish something so catastrophically evil, that Cap questions his own ability to win this time against Red Skull. Zemo and Madame Hydra need to be leads, but Red Skull needs to be the main antagonist again. What actually should have been done was that Red Skull returns in Avengers 2 and a full realization of the Masters of Evil would be there. Mads Mikkleson is the perfect Red Skull.

Winter Soldier will be in multiple movies, no need to go all out with him just yet, let it seem as though Cap has died at the end of Cap 3, Bucky picks up the mantle as Cap or U.S. Agent and features in other movies, then Cap returns in Avengers 3.

Great pitch! This was really well thought out. You seemed to have covered all your bases too. I'm a bit iffy on the the subtitle, but I understand where you're coming from with choosing that.

I would really like to see Baron Zemo and Madame Hydra in Captain America 3. It feels like it's time for them to make an appearance. We've already seen Red Skull, Arnim Zola, and Baron von Strucker, so now is a good time to see the rest of HYDRA show its face. HYDRA bringing back Red Skull is right on the money. I think it will go down like that in a very similar fashion. I also like the fact you didn't include Black Widow on Cap's strike force. Black Widow is badass and is probably my favorite female Marvel character, but it feels like she should sit this one out. After having such a big part in CA:TWS, it feels like she should be off during her own thing in CA3. We will also being seeing plenty of her in TA:AOU.

The storyline concerning Winter Solider sound a bit like rehash of what we saw in CA:TWS though. I would say his mind is more cleared towards the end of the movie, because when Cap said to Bucky about being with him to the end of the line, it triggered something in him. Bucky knows Cap is a friend. Otherwise, he wouldn't have saved him. He is more hazy on what has happened to him the past 70 years(being brainwashed would do that to a person). I'm guessing he'll be going after the remaining HYDRA higher-ups to find answers about what they did to him. And he won't be very happy. Cap being able to locate Bucky would allow him to save Bucky from himself.

Despite what I said about your Winter Soldier story arc, this was a great pitch. Thumbs up!

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